Ernest Schaal wrote:

> Eric,
>
> Let me tell you about a relatively old invention that most cinema buffs
> appreciate, that you might not have heard of, because of your limited
> experience in the arts. It is the subtitle. B-)

Oh, so you are accepting their version of what is being said.

> Actually, I realize that you probably knew about existence of subtitles,
> especially if you see any American films in Japan. Therefore, frankly I was
> surprised by the stupid disregard for the existence of this wonderful
> invention that allows us to watch movies made in languages that we don't
> understand.
>
> I have been watching Japanese cinema since the late 1960s, and I have seen a
> wide variety of Japanese cinema, from the great to the terrible. For a long
> while, there was an excellent theater that showed Japanese films in San
> Francisco's Japantown (the site of the old theater is now a fast food
> place). Also, there still are excellent video stores in the Bay area, where
> they rent and sell subtitled Japanese films. Even in Japan, it is possible
> to get subtitled Japanese films, if you look for them.
>
> As for television, I used to watch sub-titled Japanese television for years
> in the Bay Area. I watch it without subtitles here, and understand enough to
> recognize the good and the bad.
>
> Frankly, you seem to confuse knowledge of a country's language as being
> knowledge of a country's culture.

I forget the authority who claimed language is culture. Understanding nuances of
Japanese language allow one to understand a bit about the culture that needed to
create them.

> Frankly, I will admit that your Japanese skills are far superior to mine,

I have no clue what my skills are.

> as I will admit that Kaz's Japanese skills
> are also superior to mine. On the other hand, I am not impressed with your
> knowledge (or Kaz's knowledge) of Japanese cinema, literature, arts, or
> history. While you have language skills, you really haven't shown any
> indication that you have used those skills to good use in understanding
> Japan.

Why should one be impressed by such things, particularly if I make no claims?

> Have you watched any Japanese films except anime and porn?

Yes, but those which merit watching are not common. Beat Takeshi's "Zatoichi" is
the most recent thing I've rented (twice). And even if one's tastes leaned toward
anime and porn, that would still be representative of domestic offerings in local
stores. If one were to discount Japanese anime, porn, period dramas, yakuza
movies, and collections or spinoffs of TV shows, that would eliminate near 90% of
what is available here, even with thousands of titles on the shelves. Eliminate
recent trendy revisionist history pieces and formulaic low budget horror or shock
films, and the selection's practically down to zero percent. Thankfully, even
those remaining movies are generally of better quality than popular or prime time
television. But if I want to watch mediocre or derivative movies, there are quite
enough in my own language.

> As far my Japanese language skills, I recently passed the third grade of the
> Japanese Language Proficiency Test,

I like to imagine that I am at that level, but it doesn't matter.

> and will probably take next year's
> second grade test. I could rush and try to take the second grade this year
> but there are other things I want to do besides study Japanese all the time.
> I was presently surprised, when watching the Borne Supremacy, that I could
> follow the Russian dialogue by reading the Japanese subtitles (there were no
> English subtitles).

I especially noticed that irritating development with the new DVD release of the
original Star Wars trilogy during any scenes where Jabba the Hutt spoke. It used
to be with older releases that when English subtitles were required for some
foreign or alien dialogue, the original English subtitles remained onscreen even
when the digital Japanese subtitles appeared. In recent years, only the Japanese
appears. And in the case of Star Wars, among others, the Japanese rendering of
the non English dialogue is often lacking in content, nuance or wit.

> Many of the good Japanese films have been releases in the States,